Public Statements

Senator Boxer: Protecting and Strengthening Medicare

Statement

I recently spoke at the Glendale Adult Recreation Center on the need to protect Medicare and Medicaid so that current and future seniors will get the health care they need.

Before Medicare was enacted in 1965, the majority of seniors had no health insurance and one-third of seniors lived in poverty. Today, nearly all seniors have access to Medicare, and senior citizen poverty has been cut in half.

While President Obama has been working with Democrats in Congress to strengthen Medicare, House Republicans passed a budget that would turn Medicare into a voucher and leave seniors stuck paying about $6,000 a year out of their own pockets. To read more, please click here.

It is time to reaffirm our commitment to strengthening Medicare and Medicaid, and to fulfill the promises we've made to our seniors who built this great country.